CHAPTER IV.
A NIGHT OF HORROR.
The gale broke on the morning of Thursday, November 2. The compactedheaven of cloud scattered in swelling cream-coloured masses; the sunshone out of the wide lakes of moist blue, and the sea turned from thecold and sickly gray of the stormy hours into a rich sapphire, with ahigh swell and a plentiful chasing of foaming billows. By four o'clockin the afternoon the ocean had smoothed down into a tropical expanse ofquietly rising and falling waters, with the hot sun sliding westwardsand the barque stemming the sea afresh under all cloths which could bepiled upon her, the wind a small breeze, about west, and the sea-line aflawless girdle.
The evening that followed was one of quiet beauty. There was a youngmoon overhead, with power enough to drop a little trickling of silverinto the dark sea under her; the clouds had vanished, and the starsshone brightly with a very abundant showering of meteoric lights abovethe trucks of the silent swaying masts.
As we paced the deck the Captain joined us. Short of going to ourrespective cabins, there was no means of getting rid of him; so wecontinued to patrol the planks, with him at Helga's side, talking,talking--oh, Heaven! how he talked! His manner was distressinglycaressing. Helga kept hold of my arm, and meanwhile I, true to thatposture I had maintained for the past three days, listened or sent mythoughts elsewhere, rarely speaking. In the course of his ceaselesschatter he struck upon the subject of his crew and their victuals, andtold us he was sorry that we were not present when Nakier and two othercoloured men came aft into the cuddy after he had taken sights and gonebelow.
'I am certain,' he exclaimed, smiting his leg, 'that I have made themreflective! I believe I could not mistake. Nakier in particular listenedwith attention, and looked at his mates with an expression as thoughconviction were being slowly borne in upon him.'
I pricked up my ears at this, for here was a matter that had beencausing me some anxious thought, and I broke away from my sullen,resentful behaviour to question him.
'What brought the men aft?'
'The same tiresome story,' he answered, speaking loudly, and seeminglyforgetful of or indifferent to the pair of yellow ears which, I mightwarrant him, were thirstily listening at the helm. 'They ask for beef,for beef, for nothing but beef, and I say yes--beef one day, porkanother; beef for your bodies and pork for your souls. I shall conquerthem; and what a triumph it will be! Though I should make no furtherprogress with them, yet I could never feel too grateful for a decisivevictory over a gross imbecile superstition that, like a shutter, thoughit be one of many, helps to keep out the light.'
He then went on to tell us what he had said, how he had reasoned, and Ishall not soon forget the unctuous, self-satisfied chuckle which brokefrom the folds of his throat as he paused before asking Helga what shethought of _that_ as an example of pure logic. I listened, wonderingthat a man who could talk as he did could be crazy enough to attempt soperilous an experiment as the attempting to win his crew over to his ownviews of religion by as dangerous an insult as his fanatical mind couldhave lighted upon. It was the more incomprehensible to me in that thefellow had started upon his crude missionary scheme when there were buttwo whites in the ship to eleven believers in the Prophet.
I waited until his having to fetch breath enabled me to put in a word. Ithen briefly and quietly related what had passed in the forecastle asdescribed to me by Jacob Minnikin.
'And what then, Mr. Tregarthen?' said he, and I seemed to catch a sneerthreading, so to speak, his bland utterance: the moon gave but littlelight, as I have said, and I could not see his face. 'When a man startson the work of converting, he must not be afraid.'
'Your men have knives--they are devils, so I have heard, whenaroused--_you_ may not be afraid, but you have no right to provokeperil for us,' I said.
'The coxswain of a lifeboat should have a stout heart,' he exclaimed.'Miss Nielsen, do not be alarmed by your courageous friend'sapprehension. My duty is exceedingly simple. I must do what is right.Right is divinely protected;' and I saw by the pose of his head that hecast his eyes up at the sky.
I nudged Helga as a hint not to speak, just breathlessly whispering, 'Heis not to be reasoned with.'
It was a little before ten o'clock that night when the girl retired toher cabin. The Captain, addressing her in a simpering, loverlike voice,had importuned her to change her cabin. She needed to grow fretfulbefore her determined refusals silenced him. He entered his berth whenshe had gone, and I took my pipe to enjoy a quiet smoke on deck. Afterthe uproar of the past three days, the serenity of the night wasexquisitely soothing. The moon shone in a curl of silver; the canvassoared in pallid visible spaces starwards; there was a pleasant ripplingsound of gently stirred waters alongside, and the soft westerlynight-wind fanned the cheek with the warmth of an infant's breath. Thedecks ran darkling forwards; the shadow of the courses flung a dye thatwas deeper than the gloom of the hour betwixt the rails, and nothingstirred save the low-lying stars which slipped up and down past theforecastle rail under the crescent of the foresail as the barquecurtseyed.
Nevertheless, though I could not see the men, I heard a delicate soundof voices proceeding from the block of darkness where the forecastlefront lay. Mr. Jones had charge of the watch, and, on my stepping aft tothe wheel, I found Jacob grasping the spokes, having relieved the helmat four bells--ten o'clock. He was not to be accosted while on thatduty; and my dislike of the mate had not been lessened by the few wordswhich had passed between us since the day when the Cape steamer had goneby, and by my observation of his fawning behaviour to the Captain. Ibriefly exclaimed that it was a fine night, received some careless,drowsy answer from him, and, with pipe betwixt my lips, lounged lonelyon the lee side of the deck, often overhanging the rail, and viewing thesea-glow as it crept by, with my mind full of Helga, of my home, of ourexperiences so far, and of what might lie before us.
I was startled out of a fit of musing by the forecastle bell ringingfive. The clear, keen chimes floated like an echo from the sea, and Icaught a faint reverberation of them in the hollow canvas. It washalf-past ten. I knocked the ashes out of my pipe, and, going on to thequarter-deck, dropped through the hatch.
The lantern swinging in the corridor betwixt the berths was burning. Ilightly called to Helga to know if all was well with her, but she wassilent, and, as I might suppose, asleep. I put out the light, as mycustom now was, and, partially unclothing myself in the dark, got intomy bunk and lay for a little watching the dance of a phantom star or twoin the dim black round of the scuttle close against my head, sleepilywondering how long this sort of life was to continue, what time was topass, and how much was to happen before I should be restored to thecomfort of my own snug bedroom at home; and thus musing, too drowsyperhaps for melancholy, I fell asleep.
I was awakened by someone beating heavily upon the bulkhead of thenext-door cabin.
'Mr. Tregarthen! Mr. Tregarthen!' roared a voice; then thump! thump!went the blows of a massive fist or handspike. 'For Gor' a'mighty's sakewake up and turn out!--there's murder a-doing! Which is your cabin?'
I recognised the voice of Abraham, disguised as it was by horror and bythe panting of his breath.
The exclamation, _There's murder a-doing!_ collected my wits in a flash,and I was wide awake and conscious of the man's meaning ere he hadfairly delivered himself of his cry.
'I am here--I will be with you!' I shouted, and, without pausing furtherto attire myself, dropped from my bunk and made with outstretched handsfor the door, which I felt for and opened.
It was pitch dark in this passage betwixt the cabins, without even thedim gleam the porthole in the berth offered to the eye to rest on.
'Where are you, Abraham?' I cried.
'Here, sir!' he exclaimed, almost in my ear, and, lifting my hand, Itouched him.
'The crew's up!' he cried. 'They've killed the mate, and by this time,I allow, the Capt'n's done for.'
'Where's Jacob?'
'Gor' He only knows, sir!'
'Are you armed? Do you g
rip anything?'
'Nothen, nothen. I run without stopping to arm myself. I'll tell yeabout it--but it's awful to be a-talking in this here blackness withmurder happening close by.'
He still panted as from heavy recent exertion, and his voice faltered asthough he were sinking from a wound.
'What is it?' cried the clear voice of Helga from her berth.
'Open your door!' I said, knowing that it was her practice to shoot thebolt. 'All is darkness here. Let us in--dress yourself by feeling foryour clothes--the Malays have risen upon the Captain and mate--it may beour turn next, and we must make a stand in your cabin. Hush!'
In the interval of her quitting her bunk to open the door, I strained myears. Nothing was to be heard save near and distant noises rising out ofthe vessel as she heeled on the long westerly swell. But then we weredeep down, with two decks for any noise made on the poop to penetrate.
'The door is open,' said Helga.
I had one hand on Abraham's arm, and, feeling with the other, I guidedhim into Helga's berth, the position of which, as he had never beforebeen in this part of the vessel, he could not have guessed. I thenclosed the door and bolted it.
'Dress yourself quickly, Helga!' said I, talking to her in the mine-likeblindness of this interior that was untouched by the star or two thatdanced in her cabin window as in mine.
'Tell me what has happened!' she exclaimed.
'Speak, Abraham!' said I.
'Lor'! but Oi don't seem able to talk without a light,' he answered.'Ain't there no lantern here? If there's a lantern, I've got three orfour loocifers in my pocket.'
'Hist!' I cried. 'I hear footsteps.'
We held our breath: all was still. Some sound had fallen upon my ear. Itresembled the slapping of planks with naked feet to my fancy, that hadbeen terrified by Abraham's sudden horrible report, before there wastime for my muscles and nerves to harden into full waking strength.
'What d'ye hear?' hoarsely whispered Abraham.
'It was imagination. Helga, can we light the lantern?'
She answered 'Yes'--she was ready.
'Strike a match, Abraham, that I may see where the lantern hangs!' saidI.
He did so, holding the flame in his fist. I opened the door, whippedout, took down the lantern and darted in again, bolting the door anewwith a thrill of fear following upon the haste I had made throughimagination of one of those yellow-skins crouching outside with nakedknife in hand. I swiftly lighted the lantern, and placed it in Helga'sbunk. Abraham was of an ashen paleness, and I knew my own cheeks to bebloodless.
'Ought we to fear the crew?' cried Helga. 'We have not wronged them.They will not want _our_ lives.'
'Dorn't trust 'em, dorn't trust 'em!' exclaimed Abraham. 'Ain't therenothen here to sarve as weapons?' he added, rolling his eyes around thecabin.
'What is the story? Tell it now, man, tell it!' I cried, in a voicevehement with nerves.
He answered, speaking low, very hastily and hoarsely: 'Oi'd gone belowat eight bells. Oi found Nakier haranguing some of the men as was in thefok'sle; but he broke off when he see me. Oi smoked a pipe, and thentarned in and slep' for an hour or so; then awoke and spied five or sixof the chaps a-whispering together up in a corner of the fok'sle. Theyoften looked moy way, but there worn't loight enough to let 'em knowthat my eyes was open, and I lay secretly a-watching 'em, smellingmischief. Then a couple of 'em went on deck, and the rest lay down.Nothen happened for some time. Meanwhile Oi lay woide awake, listeningand watching. 'Twas about seven bells, Oi reckon, when someone--Oi thinkit was Nakier--calls softly down through the hatch, and instantly allthe fellows, who as I could ha' swore was sound asleep, dropped fromtheir hammocks like one man, and the fok'sle was empty. I looked roundto make sure that it were empty, then sneaks up and looks aft with mychin no higher than the coaming. I heered a loud shriek, and a cry of "OGod! O God! Help! help!" and now, guessing what was happening, andbelieving that the tastin' of blood would drive them fellows mad, andthat Oi should be the next if Jacob worn't already gone, him being atthe wheel, as I might calculate by his not being forrard, Oi took andrun, and here Oi am.'
He passed the back of his hand over his brow, following the action witha fling of his fingers from the wrist; and, indeed, it was now to beseen that his face streamed with sweat.
'Do you believe they have murdered the Captain?' cried Helga.
'I dorn't doubt it--I _can't_ doubt it. There seemed two gangs of 'em.Oi run for my life, and yet I see two gangs,' answered Abraham.
'Horrible!' exclaimed the girl, looking at me with fixed eyes, yet sheseemed more shocked than frightened.
'Did not I foresee this?' I exclaimed. 'Where were your senses,man--_you_ who lived amongst them, ate and drank with them? It would bebad enough if they were white men; but how stands our case, do youthink, in a ship seized by savages who have been made to hate us for ourcreed and for the colour of our skins?'
'Hark!' cried Helga.
We strained our hearing, but nothing was audible to me saving my heart,that beat loud in my ears.
'I thought I heard the sound of a splash,' she said.
'If they should ha' done for my mate, Jacob!' cried Abraham. 'As theLord's good, 'twill be too hard. Fust wan, then another, and now nowtbut me left of our little company as left Deal but a day or tew ago, asit seems when Oi looks back.'
'Are we to perish here like poisoned rats in a hole?' said I. 'If theyclap the hatch-cover on, what's to become of us?'
'Who among them can navigate the ship?' asked Helga.
'Ne'er a one,' replied Abraham; '_that_ I can tell 'ee from recollectingof the questions Nakier's asted me from toime to toime.'
'But if the body of them should come below,' cried I, 'and force thatdoor--as easily done as blowing out that light there--are we to bebutchered with empty hands, looking at them without a lift of our arms,unless it be to implore mercy? Here are two of us--Englishmen! Are we tobe struck down as if we were women?'
'There are three of us!' said Helga.
'What are our weapons?' I exclaimed, wildly sweeping the little hole ofa cabin with my eyes. 'They have their knives!'
'Give me the handling of 'em one arter the other,' said Abraham,fetching a deep breath and then spitting on his hands, 'and I'll takethe whole 'leven whilst ye both sit down and look on. But all of them atwanst--all dronk with rage and snapping round a man as if he was a sheepand they wolves!'--he breathed deeply again, slowly shaking his head.
'The planks in that bunk are loose,' said I, 'but what can we do withboards?'
'I will go on deck!' suddenly exclaimed Helga.
'You?' cried I. 'No, indeed! You will remain here. There must be two ofus for them to deal with before the third can be come at!'
'I will go on deck!' she repeated. 'I have less cause to fear them thanyou. They know that I am acquainted with navigation--they have alwayslooked at me with kindness in their faces. Let me go and talk to them!'
She made a step to the door--I gripped her arm, and brought her to myside and held her.
'What is to be done is for us two men to do!' said I. 'We must think,and we must wait.'
'Let me go!' she cried. 'They will listen to me, and I shall be able tomake terms. Unless there be a navigator among them, what can they dowith the ship in this great ocean?' She struggled, crying again: 'Let mego to them, Hugh!'
'Dorn't you do nothen of the sort, sir!' exclaimed Abraham. 'What'dhappen? They'd tarn to and lock her up until they'd made an end of youand me, and then she'd be left alone aboard this wessel--alone, I mean,with eleven yaller savages. Gor' preserve us! If you let go of her, sir,_Oi_ shall have to stop the road.'
There was something of deliberateness in his speech: his English spiritwas coming back with the weakening of the horror that had filled himwhen he first came rushing below.
Someone knocked lightly on the door. At the same instant my eye wastaken by the glance of lamp or candle flame in the opening in thebulkhead overlooking the narrow passage.
'Hush!' cried I.
The knock was repeated. It was a very soft tapping, as though made by atimid knuckle.
'Who is there?' I shouted, gathering myself together with a resolutionto leap upon the first dark throat that showed; for I believed this softknocking--this soundless approach--a Malay ruse, and my veins tingledwith the madness that enters the blood of a man in the supreme momentwhose expiry means life or death to him.
'It is me, master! Open, master! It is allee right!'
'That's Nakier!' exclaimed Abraham.
'Who is it?' I cried.
'Me, sah--Nakier. It is allee right, I say. Do not fear. Our work isdone. We wish to speakee with you, and be friend.'
'How many of you are there outside?' I called.
'No man but Nakier,' he answered.
'How are we to know that?' bawled Abraham. 'The most of you have nakedfeet. A whole army of ye might sneak aft, and no one guess it.'
'I swear Nakier is alone. Lady, you shall trust Nakier. Our work isdone; it is allee right, I say. See, you tink I am not alone: you areafraid of my knife; go a leetle way back--I trow my knife to you.'
We recoiled to the bulkhead, and Abraham roared 'Heave!' The knife fellupon the deck close to my feet. I pounced upon it as a cat upon a mouse,but dropped it with a cry. 'Oh, God, it is bloody!'
'Give it me!' exclaimed Abraham, in a hoarse shout; 'it'll be bloodieryet, now I've got it, if that there Nakier's a-playing false.'
Grasping it in his right hand, he slipped back the bolt, and opened thedoor. The sensations of a lifetime of wild experiences might have beenconcentrated in that one instant. I had heard and read so much about thetreachery of the Malay that when Abraham flung open the little cabindoor I was prepared for a rush of dusky shapes, and to find myselfgrappling--but not for life, since death I knew to be certain, armed asevery creature of them was with the deadly blade of the sailor's sheathknife. Instead--in the corridor, immediately abreast of our cabin,holding a bull's-eye lamp in his hand, stood Nakier, who on seeing usput the light on the deck, and saluted us by bringing both hands to hisbrow. Abraham put his head out.
'There ain't nobody here but Nakier!' he cried.
'What have you done?' I exclaimed, looking at the man, who in thecombined light showed plainly, and whose handsome features had themodest look, the prepossessing air, I had found when my gaze firstrested on him in this ship.
'The Captain is kill--Pallunappachelly, he kill him. The mate iskill--with this han'.' He held up his arm.
'Where's moy mate?' thundered Abraham.
'No man touch him. Jacob, he allee right. Two only.' He held up twofingers. 'The Captain and Misser Jones. They treat us like dog, and webite like dog,' he added, showing his teeth, but with nothing whateverof fierceness or wildness in his grin.
'What do you want?' I repeated.
'We wantchee you come speak with us. We allee swear on de Koran not tohurt you, but to serve you, and you serve we.'
I stood staring, not knowing how to act.
'He is to be trusted,' said Helga.
'But the others?' I said.
'They can do nothing without us.'
'Without _one_ of us. But the others!'
'We may trust them,' she repeated, with an accent of conviction.
Nakier's eyes, gleaming in the lantern-light, were bent upon us as wewhispered. He perceived my irresolution, and, once again putting downthe bull's-eye lamp on the deck, he clasped and extended his hands in aposture of impassioned entreaty.
'We allee swear we no hurt you!' he cried in a voice of soft entreatythat was absolutely sweet with the melody of its tones; 'dat beautifulyoung lady--oh! I would kill here,' he cried, gesticulating as though hewould stab his heart, 'before dat good, kind, clever lady be harm. Oh,you may trust us! We hab done our work. Mr. Wise, he be Capt'n; you begentleman--passengaire; you live upstair and be very much comfortable.De beautiful young lady, she conduct dis ship to Afric. Oh, no, no, no!you are allee safe. My men shall trow down dere knives upon de tablewhen you come, and we swear on de Koran to be your friend, and you befriend to we.'
'Let's go along with him, Mr. Tregarthen,' said Abraham. 'Nakier, Ishall stick to this here knife. Where's moy mate Jacob? If 'ere a man ofye's hurted him----'
'It is no time to threaten,' I whispered angrily, shoving past him.'Come, Helga! Nakier, pick up that bull's-eye and lead the way, and,Abraham, follow with that lantern, will you?'
In silence we gained the hatch. It lay open. Nakier sprang through it,and, one after the other, we ascended. The wind had fallen scantiersince I was on deck last, and though the loftier canvas was asleep,silent as carved marble, and spreading in spectral wanness under thebright stars, there was no weight in the wind to hold steady the heavyfolds of the fore and main courses, which swung in and out with thedull sound of distant artillery as the barque leaned from side to side.The cuddy lamp was brightly burning, and the first glance I sent throughthe open door showed me the whole of the crew, as I for the instantsupposed--though I afterwards found that one of them was at thewheel--standing at the table, ranged on either hand of it, all asmotionless as a company of soldiers drawn up on parade. Every dark facewas turned our way, and never was shipboard picture more startling andimpressive than this one of stirless figures, dusky fiery eyes, knittedbrows, most of the countenances hideous, but all various in theirugliness. Their caps and queer headgear lay in a heap upon the table.Nakier entered and paused, with a look to us to follow. Helga wasfearlessly pressing forwards. I caught her by the hand and cried toNakier:
'Those men are all armed.'
He rounded upon them, and uttered some swift feverish sentence in hisnative tongue. In a moment every man whipped out his knife from thesheath in which it lay buried at the hip, and placed it upon the table.Nakier again spoke, pronouncing the words with a passionate gesture, onwhich Punmeamootty gathered the knives into one of the caps and handedthem to Nakier, who brought the cap to Helga and placed it at her feet.On his doing this, Abraham threw the blood-stained knife he held intothe cap.
It was at that moment we were startled by a cry of 'Below there!'
'Whoy, it's Jacob!' roared Abraham, and stepping backwards and lookingstraight up, he shouted, 'Jacob, ahoy! Where are ye, mate?'
'Up in the maintop, pretty nigh dead,' came down the leather-lungedresponse from the silence up above.
'Thank God you're alive!' cried Abraham. 'It's all roight now--it's allroight now.'
'Who's agoing to make me believe it?' cried Jacob.
I stared up, and fancied I could just perceive the black knob of hishead projected over the rim of the top.
'You can come down, Jacob,' I cried. 'All danger, I hope, is over.'
'Danger over?' he bawled. 'Whoy, they've killed the mate and chuckedhim overboard, and if I hadn't taken to my heels and jumped aloft they'dhave killed me.'
'No, no--not true; not true, sah!' shrieked Nakier. 'Come down, Jacob!It is allee right!'
'Where's the Captain?' cried Jacob.
'Him overboard!' answered Nakier. 'It is allee right, I say!'
A shudder ran through me as I glanced at the cabin which the Captain hadoccupied. I cannot express how the horror of this sudden, shocking,bloody tragedy was heightened by Nakier's cool and easy acceptance ofthe deed, as though the two men whom he and his had slain were less tohis sympathies than had they been a couple of fowls whose necks had beenwrung.
'Pray come down, Jacob!' said Helga, sending her voice clear as a bellinto the silent towering heights. 'You, as well as Abraham, are to beknown as an Englishman.'
This little scornful stroke, which was extremely happy in that it wasunintelligible to Nakier and the others, had the desired effect.
'Why, if it is all right, then I suppose it _be_ all right,' I heardJacob say, and a few moments after his figure, with 'longshoreclumsiness, came slowly down the rigging.
As he sprang from the bulwark rail on to the deck, he whipped off hiscap and dashed it down on to the planks, and with th
e utmost agitationof voice and manner danced around his cap as he vociferated while heflourished his fist at Abraham:
'Now, what did Oi say? All along Oi've been a-telling ye that that therepork job was agoing to get our throats cut. Whoy didn't ye stop it? Whoydidn't ye tell the Capt'n what you seed and knowed? Froight! Whoy, Imoight ha' died in that there top and rolled overboards, and what yarnwas ye going to give my missis as to my hending, if so be as ever ye gotashore at Deal agin?'
He continued to shout after this fashion, meanwhile tumbling and reelingabout his cap as though it were a mark for him upon the theatre of thisdeck on which to act his part. But though it appeared a very ecstasy ofrage in him, the outbreak seemed wholly due to revulsion of feeling.Nakier stood motionlessly eyeing him; the others also remained attable, all preserving their sentinel postures. At last the fellow madean end, put his cap on, and was silent, breathing hard.
'Will you come in, sah? Will you enter, lady? Misser Wise, it is alleeright. Come along, Jacob, my mate!'
Thus saying, Nakier re-entered the cuddy, and the four of us followedhim. There was a dark stain on the bare plank close against the coamingor ledge of the door of the Captain's cabin. It was the short, wild,startled sideways spring which Abraham gave that caused me to look atit. The very soul within me seemed to shrink at the sight.
Nakier exclaimed, 'It is easy to scrape out,' motioning with his littledelicately-shaped hand as though he scraped. He then addressed one ofthe fellows at the table, who nodded, sweeping the air with his arm ashe did so.
It now occurred to me, with the marvellous swiftness of thought, thatthe cap containing the men's knives still lay upon the deck where Nakierhad lodged it at Helga's feet, and the instant motion of my mind was toreturn to the quarter-deck, pick the cap up, and heave it over the rail.But I reflected that not only might an act of this sort enrage the crewby losing them their knives--it would also imply profound distrust onour part. I also considered that, if they designed to kill us, theywould be able to manage that business very well without theirknives--for there was the carpenter's tool-chest forward, which wouldsupply them with plenty of deadly weapons, not to mention the cabinknives, which Punmeamootty had charge of, and of which several were atall times to be found in the galley. All this passed through my mind inthe space that a man might count five in, so amazing is the velocity ofimagination; and my resolution was formed in this matter even while Icontinued to measure the few steps which separated the table from thecuddy door.
Nakier went to the head of the table, and, putting his hand upon theCaptain's chair, exclaimed, bowing with inimitable grace to Helga as hespoke:
'Will de sweet mees sit here?'
She passed along the little file of five men and took the chair. I donot know whether she had seen that mark on the deck I have spoken of.She was of a deathlike whiteness, but her eyes shone spiritedly as sheran them over the coloured faces of the queer figures erect on eitherhand the table, and never at any time since the hour when the dawnshowed me her pretty face aboard the _Anine_, apparelled as she then wasas a boy, had I observed more composure and resolution in hercountenance.
I stood close beside her, and Abraham and his mate were on her right.Nakier went on gliding feet to the fore-end of the table and saidsomething to the men. What language he expressed himself in I did notthen, and still do not, know. The effect of his speech was to cause thewhole of them to extend their arms towards us with the forefingers ofboth hands together. The posture, for the moment, was absolutely asthough to Nakier's command they had simultaneously levelled firearms atus! Jacob fell back a step with a growl of alarm.
'What is all this, Nakier?' I called out.
'It is to say we are all your brodders, sah. It is my country sign offriendship.'
Their hands fell to their sides, but immediately afterwards Nakierspoke again to them, whereupon every man levelled his forefingers, asbefore, at Helga. Again Nakier spoke, and Punmeamootty left the cuddy.
'I wish he'd talk English,' exclaimed Abraham, wiping his forehead.'Who's to know what's agoing to happen?'
'It is allee right, Misser Wise,' said Nakier, with a soft smile, halfof reproach, half of encouragement. 'Punmeamootty hab gone to fetch deKoran for we to swear to be true and not harm you.'